Fall Away
by Working-On-Sanity
Summary: Naruto doesn't understand how a simple touch from Kakashi can bring a smile to Iruka's face - would his own touch make Sasuke that sweet and vulnerable-looking? Watching his teachers hug makes everything seem so perfectly right. KakaIru, NaruSasu fluff.


**FALL-AWAY**

_uzumakifangirl13_

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_My sister, **SBKitsune**, loves the pairing Kakashi X Iruka, and I promised her a one-shot featuring them. As you may see, I've never actually written a KakaIru, but I managed to put some NaruSasu in there, as well (don't kill me, sis). This is pretty much plotless, more like a little fluffy thing with a fatherly Kakashi and a bashful Iruka. There is out-of-characterness, so this is basically a brain fart with lots of fluff. _

**Warning: **_Very mild boy x boy interactions. There is also a vomit warning for chibi waff._

* * *

><p>Kakashi's single visible eye glinted in the sudden glare of white sunlight, his slate-gray iris unemotional and empty. His gaze traveled lazily over his trio of students; each teenager had his or her own special abilities that were Kakashi's duty to cultivate.<p>

Despite the fact that he loved each growing Shinobi dearly, this particular morning, it had seemed as though Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had taken it upon themselves to twist their sensei's weekend into a loathsome span of time.

"Since you all decided to act as though you just entered the Academy today, I believe that it would be appropriate to evoke your status of Genin and return you idiots to your proper place - under the tutoring of Umino Iruka." Kakashi lowered his orange-backed novel, his stare cold and disapproving.

The whites of Naruto's eyes engulfed the orbs of blue at the teacher's words, and he lunged forward, desperately gripping the material of Kakashi's flak vest.

"Don't, Kakashi-sensei!" he wailed dramatically, tugging on the man's garment in undisguised horror. "We won't fight anymore - I promise!"

Flipping himself from Kakashi's torso, the dwarfed blonde swung his arm around Sasuke's slim shoulders in a pseudo-friendly gesture, startling the taller boy into a vehement agreement to the vow of behaving.

"That's right, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura declared, curling her fingers into a fist of determination. _If I get into trouble_ _again, Sasuke-kun is going to think the worst of me.. ._she realized fearfully - being returned to the Academy was terrorizing to think of in itself.

Entirely in spite of the somber situation, the Jonin's narrow gray eyes closed, intricate crinkles creasing the edges of his eyes as he smiled cheerfully. As if the scenario had been a game, he idly opened the book once again, flipping through the smooth pages until he found the paragraph of his searchings.

"Wonderful to see you've changed your minds about arguing," he encouraged in a father-like tone, relishing the expressions of astonishment that adorned the chubby-cheeked faces of his charges. "You three should keep practicing with your Shuriken for a bit, alright?"

"Where are you going, sensei?" Sakura demanded distractedly, casting a wary sideways glance at Naruto, who still had his arm wound loosely about Sasuke's neck.

Kakashi airily raised a gloved hand to wave it flippantly, showing his ease of attitude.

"I'm going to be heading for the Academy... it seems as if I've left my knapsack with Iruka," he explained, his toneless voice rippled with amusement at his own absentmindedness.

"Play nice, my midgets," he added without hesitation, lifting two fingers in the Half-Tiger Seal - without further orders, he vanished in a swirl of dissipating haze, leaving the children in a dazed state of stupor.

* * *

><p>The Ninja Academy was a pleasant place, Kakashi frequently was reminded. The building itself was aged, it was simple to tell, but nonetheless tidy and containing a comfortable, homey aura. Grass grew tall around the foundation of the structure, the subtle green a stark contrast to the soft red color of the painted exterior.<p>

But more than anything, Kakashi loved the inside of the Academy. Desks lined the brightly-lit rooms, where the students from the current generation gathered to pack into the benches, shoving and pinching playfully to get the desired seating area. Plaster peeled from the walls, and the hardwood floor was battered and dented in places.

The sensei's favorite article of furniture in the room was the long, cluttered desk that abode quite humbly in front of the scratched blackboard. Drawers were left open, papers and documents spilling out like numerous crumpled white tongues. A half-consumed aluminum can of day-old soda stood lonesomely on the corner of the desk, and unidentifiable crumbs and eraser bits were scattered over the ancient surface of pine.

But, for all the messiness, the mounds of litter appeared holy, somehow - and almost natural - when Umino Iruka was seated behind them, sifting sleepily through a manila folder of written exams. His red marker in his left hand, he would mechanically slash bright crimson 'X's over the incorrect answers, the action seemingly requiring no effort.

"Hello!" the nickel-haired male called out brightly, his exclamation sounding hollow and fake in the emptiness of the nearly desolate room. Sliding his novel into the front of his vest, Kakashi watched as Iruka abruptly looked up from his work, the stray strands of hair that had come loose from his cocoa-colored ponytail shifting to hang over his hazel eyes.

"Morning, Kakashi-san," the man greeted politely, shyly reaching upward to brush the threads of hair away from his forehead. "Why did you come so early? I thought that Naruto was with you," he added with concern, his love for the boy clearly evident.

"He was - I left the troublesome little ones to practice with their Shuriken. Actually, that's why I'm here - I forgot my own Shuriken," he chuckled in embarrassment. "I assume you noticed that, already, though."

Iruka nodded, his task of grading papers momentarily forgotten as he pushed himself from his desk, the feet of the chair shrieking against the floor with the movement.

"Of course - wait here and I'll get them for you," he offered kindly, gesturing to the empty chair. "I put them away in storage for whenever you came to get them. Hold on, alright?" Iruka appeared somewhat anxious about leaving Kakashi alone, from his own nervousness, or for fear that he may seem discourteous by leaving a friend alone in an unoccupied room.

"It's fine," the Jonin replied coolly, not unnerved by the teacher's awkward mannerisms. Almost relieved, Iruka fumbled for the doorknob, hurriedly letting himself from the classroom to sweep down the wide hall. It took only a moment for him to relocate the large, sagging canvas pack of steel star-shaped weapons, and heaving it from the shelf, he hastened to return to Kakashi's presence.

_Kakashi-san... _ he murmured silently, his musings subdued and in awe of the older man, _you always make me feel strange. It's only around you that I really begin to doubt myself._

"Here you are!" the brunet informed, thrusting the cumbersome bag into the other man's unprepared arms. The flap of the sack shifted with the unceremonious motion, opening just enough to allow several Shuriken freedom, the small items falling to the ground with identical metallic clinks.

"Oh..." Kakashi uncomfortably glanced at Iruka's face, the shorter Shinobi's features crumpling with mortification.

"I'm sorry, K-Kakashi-san, I'll get those," he stammered, olive cheeks flushing mauve as he knelt, rapidly gathering the Shuriken and barely noticing when the point of a star pricked his fingertip in his haste, a minute bead of dark scarlet manifesting on the soft pad of the digit.

None of this escaped Kakashi's trained observation; as Iruka stood to his feet, the elder male grasped his small hand in his own large, rough one, peering intently at the pearl of blood.

"You need to be careful with such," he advised gently, lifting his gaze to stare at his reflection in the Academy tutor's moisture-dimmed, leather-brown eyes. Not bothering with formalities, Kakashi busied himself by smearing away the blood using the palm of his navy knit glove.

Iruka only watched the Jonin's deft, callused fingers move over his own more delicate bronze ones, the tears of hatred toward his foolishness pooling in his vision and blurring the image. The patch of red clung spitefully to his cheeks, highlighting the scar that slashed over the smooth bridge of his nose.

"It'll be okay." Sensing his inner turbulence, the gray-haired sensei smiled soothingly, a wave of protective emotions drowning whatever little trifle of annoyance he had felt at Iruka's clumsiness. He gently rubbed the roughened flesh of his thumb against the small brunet's knuckles, letting himself be lost in the sensation of the silk-soft, buttery skin.

Iruka's eyes widened at the gentle intimacy, but, having experienced Kakashi's blunt, straightforward manner of affections on numerous occasions before, he kept silent, not objecting to the tender way his hand was caressed.

Neither did he cry out in denial of permission as the elder Shinobi lovingly tucked him into his embrace - not the embrace of passionate lovers, but rather the thoughtful, careful hug of a comforting father to his disconcerted child.

A rueful smile pulled at the corners of Iruka's peach-pink lips as his cheek was pushed to Kakashi's firm chest, the man's palm on the nape of his neck further pressing the side of his face into the stiff fabric of the flak vest. He was rocked gently, the display of the Jonin's adoration a strange deviation from his normal brusque attitude that was presented to all others.

The black scrunchie that held his ponytail in place at the top of his scalp was also fondled, as Kakashi's lingering touch traveled preferably upwards, causing the liquid-like tendrils of chocolate-tan to cascade over his brow, dangling once again over the lids of his closed eyes, tickling the long fringes of dark lashes as he was lightly swayed to and fro.

It all felt... rather nice.

* * *

><p>"Gee whiz..." Naruto commented, his loud voice now oddly subdued. "Iruka-sensei looks happy. He doesn't look all worn-out and tired the way he does when he's around me."<p>

Standing on the cutely-rounded toes of his sandals, the blonde squinted into the fingerprint-riddled window, his pastel-blue eyes mere slits as he observed the tender scene that was continuing in the main classroom of Konoha's Ninja Academy.

Sasuke tilted his head in confusion, his crookedly-cropped black violet bangs stroking his heat-reddened cheeks as his forehead creased with unease. Considerably taller than his teammate, he managed to see a bit more than Naruto was capable of, and he would admit to only his conscience that it was quite lovely to watch all the anxiety and worry melt from his past tutor's shoulders.

"Do hugs like that make people feel happy?" the whiskered boy inquired naively, honestly not experienced with any sorts of physical contact, no matter how innocent.

"Um... I don't know. I guess," the raven replied unhappily. He glanced at Naruto momentarily, before observing the remainder of the men's sweetly-intimate interaction.

Naruto touched the curve of his nose to the window, desperately wanting to giggle but deciding that this was the entirely wrong time. It was somehow very pleasant to watch his two sensei engage in emotional matters, and the sight induced a bubbling joyfulness in his midsection that made him bounce lightly up and down on tiptoe.

"Sasuke? Is Kakashi-sensei smiling?" he wondered, for the first time gazing into the others' exotic almond-shaped eyes.

Sasuke looked again for conformation, and shrugged delicately. "Probably," he answered curtly. "Iruka is - have you noticed that whenever Iruka smiles, Kakashi does?"

Naruto laughed quietly, his flaxen forelock slipping to hide one round blue orb from view: "That's the same thing with me an' you! When you smile, it makes me all happy and I smile too!" he informed.

Without warning, the boy let himself fall from the toes of his clumsy, too-large shoes, landing with a smack of the soles against the packed-soil ground - and before Sasuke was given time to object, or squeal in surprise as he was touched, Naruto's small, awkward teenage hands were pressing on his warm cheeks, drawing him downward until they were nearly eye-level with one another.

"I'm going to make your face turn red like Iruka-sensei's," the little blonde declared, and with all the tenderness that he had just witnessed from the Chunin and Jonin, he attempted to replicate Kakashi's actions toward the blushing teacher.

Sasuke opened his mouth to insult Naruto's bluntness, but no words would form on his motionless tongue, the muscle flattening in the saliva that pooled in his mouth as the other boy began to stroke his confident fingers through the long, fine hair at the back of his neck. The mere feeling of those long, bony digits unskillfully carding through his locks of inky purple-highlighted hair caused an unfamiliar shiver to tremble in his nerves.

Naruto, who not paying much attention to the way Sasuke's childishly chunky-framed body quivered in his hold, impatiently tugged the taller boy's head to rest on his shoulder, eager to ensue in the excitement of physical contact.

Sasuke's skin felt so peculiar beneath his fingers! Almost like a sheet of pure silk, white, smooth, and untainted - it had never felt that way against his knuckles, when they sparred and he happened to land a hit.

Was it supposed to feel like that? His dark hair was, if possible, more captivating that his pretty skin, like an array of erect crow feathers in the back and clumps of liquid charcoal in front. It was like thread between his thumb and forefinger as he gently explored the sensation, his nails clumsily nicking the raven's scalp every so often.

"Now," he announced briefly, his voice retaining its cute girlishness and not at all deepened by shame, "I get to kiss your finger because you cut it on a Shuriken like Iruka-sensei did."

Pushing the horrified, stiff Sasuke away, he lovingly cupped the larger hand in both of his, staring with convincing fondness at the elder's prominent knuckles and uneven edges of his nails where he had chewed at them before.

"Kakashi didn't kiss Iru - " Sasuke began to protest against the alien concept of his tutor kissing another person, but he was sweetly interrupted as Naruto soft mouth descended on the joint of his middle finger, the supple pink lips soothing the nonexistent pain of the imaginary wound.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, and he quickly jerked his arm away, unable to bear much more of the humiliation. His cheeks burned fiercely now, the role-playing actions growing to an extent where it was becoming uncouth.

Disappointed that their actions lacked the emotion that was evident in the earlier show, the whiskered boy frowned, absentmindedly flicking his rose petal tongue out to catch the minuscule pinpricks of sweat that had transferred to his mouth from Sasuke's flesh.

"Oh!" he exclaimed triumphantly, a smug smile stretching his lips as he clasped his hands behind his head in the characteristic pose: "I made your face go red, Sasuke!"

The raven could feel the stinging burn fan over his jaw as he lowered his head, self-consciously looking at his feet while silently agonizing over their game.

It had all been rather nice, but they would save this for the adults.

* * *

><p><em>And that was all for Kakashi X Iruka fluffles. I didn't like this story, but I did promise my sister. I hope she deems it acceptable... and don't expect any more Kakashi X Iruka from me. It's adorable, and all, but my OTP is Naruto X Sasuke... and I failed miserably at chibi waff... and fluff, too... maybe angst is more my thing.. if I have a thing. <em>

_Anyway, I hope you were at least mildly entertained... tell me what you thought of it!_


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